One of the main reasons why people have heart disease and heart attacks is inflammation in the arteries caused by the high level of homocysteine, not by the cholesterol level. It increases a person’s risk of heart attack by 300 percent. This is more than any other cause. The majority of people with high cholesterol never suffer heart attacks. This is why cholesterol-lowering drugs like the synthetic statin drugs have failed to make a dent in the heart attack rates.